Tag: operating profit

Merlin’s Profits Soar By 1,000% After Metrovacesa Merger

2 March 2017 – Expansión

In 2016, the listed real estate investment company (Socimi) Merlin Properties managed to turn itself into one of the largest real estate companies in Europe. It also made the leap onto the selective Ibex 35, which had not featured a single company from the property sector since 2008.

And, it achieved these milestones thanks to the completion of the largest corporate transaction between real estate companies since the burst of the real estate bubble – the integration of the historical firm Metrovacesa, and that had a significant impact on its income statement for the year.

In this way, in 2016, Merlin saw its net profit soar by 1,087% to €582.6 million, thanks in large part to the contribution of Metrovacesa’s assets, which increased the value of its portfolio to €9,824 million.

In the case of revenues, the Socimi generated 362.8 million, the majority of which (€351 million) came from rental income. Last year, the contribution of rental income rose by 64% compared to 2015.

The firm’s operating profit or EBITDA amounted to €303.6 million, whilst its net debt, at the end of the year, stood at €4,471 million.

Dividend

The company, which has just appointed Francisco Javier García-Carranza Benjumea, the Deputy General Manager at Banco de Santander, as its new President, to replace Rodrigo Echenique, has announced the distribution of an extra dividend, amounting to 20 cents, which will take the remuneration per shareholder in 2016 to €0.40 per share.

Likewise, the Socimi, which owns a 16.1% stake in Testa Residencial, has said that it will increase the distribution of profits amongst its shareholders by 10% in 2017 (as a Socimi, it is obliged to distribute 80% of its profits) to 44 cents, which will involve the distribution of more than €207 million.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hispania Multiplies Its Profits By 11x To €120M In H1

28 July 2016 – Expansión

The Socimi Hispania generated an attributable profit of €120 million during the first half of 2016, which represents an eleven-fold increase in earnings compared with the same period last year.

These “solid” results reflect the “excellent progress” of the firm’s hotel portfolio, improvements in the occupancy rates of its office buildings and the continuous appreciation of its residential portfolio.

Net operating income increased eight-fold, to €48.2 million. The recurrent gross operating profit (EBITDA) amounted to €39.3 million, compared with a negative EBITDA of €124 million in the same period in 2015.

The net turnover figure stood at €60.18 million, i.e. six times higher than in H1 2015, when it amounted to €10.6 million. By segment, €48 million (+1.375%) of the Socimi’s turnover corresponded to hotels; €9.1 million (+68%) to offices; and €3 million (+55%) to residential assets.

Hotel success

According to the Socimi, its hotel portfolio has performed “very positively” during the first half of the year, driven, primarily, by its hotels in the Canary Islands.

The firm’s share price rose by 1% on the stock market yesterday to €11.50.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Q1 2016: Hispania Multiplies Profits By 18x To €11.2M

11 May 2016 – Valencia Plaza

Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios generated net profits of €11.2 million during the first quarter of the year, which represents a 1.753% increase on the figure recorded during the same period last year, according to a report submitted by the company to Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

At the end of March, the Socimi in which George Soros holds a stake, recorded revenues from rental income amounting to €29.7 million, which represents a 69.2% increase compared with Q4 2015 and a 465% increase with respect to the same period last year.

The company’s gross operating profit (EBITDA) amounted to €19.22 million at the end of March, up by 1.177% compared with the first quarter last year.

At the end of the first quarter, Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios owned a portfolio containing 60 assets with a gross value of €1,463.3 million.

In terms of the company’s marketing activity, the average occupancy rate of its office portfolio amounted to 81% at the end of March.

In terms of investments in renovation work during the first quarter of 2016, Hispania invested €7.2 million to reposition certain properties. At the end of the first quarter, the group’s total cumulative investment, since it debuted on the stock exchange, amounted to €1,334.9 million.

In addition, the Socimi obtained financing worth €62.5 million during the quarter, which increased the group’s total financial debt to €629.4 million.

Original story: Valencia Plaza

Translation: Carmel Drake

Taylor Wimpey Sold 53% More Homes In Spain In 2015

12 January 2016 – Expansión

The British real estate company Taylor Wimpey sold 53% more properties in Spain in 2015, thanks to the recovery of the market and the appreciation of the Pound against the Euro, which attracted more British buyers.

Taylor Wimpey, which owns residential developments on the Spanish Mediterranean coast and in the Balearic Islands, sold 251 homes in Spain last year, compared with 164 in 2014. In addition, the average price paid for each property increased from €250,000 to €314,000. As a result, its turnover amounted to around €79 million, up by 92%.

Thanks to increases in the number of operations as well as in their value, the company says that the operating profit of its Spanish subsidiaries in 2015 exceeded the profit of GBP 4.2 million (€5.6 million) recorded a year earlier. The definitive financial data for last year will be announced next month.

Besides the sales that have already been completed, the property developer claims to have signed pre-contracts for the sale of a further 270 homes in Spain.

“We saw a significant improvement in the Spanish market in 2015” explained Taylor Wimpey yesterday in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. However, despite this recovery, the Group’s annual sales have not yet returned to the levels recorded in the Spanish market before the crisis. In 2006, for example, TW sold 379 properties and recorded turnover of around €130 million.

The majority of the homes that Taylor Wimpey promotes in Spain are acquired by British citizens who want to have a second residence in this country. According to data from the Association of Registrars (el Colegio de Registradores), citizens from the UK accounted for a fifth of the acquisitions made by foreigners in the Spanish market in 2015.

Spain is the only country outside of the UK where Taylor Wimpey has a presence. After recognising provisions for around €60 million between 2007 and 2010 to reflect the decrease in the value of its developments and land in Spain, the company started buying land again on the Costa del Sol and in Mallorca, where it forecast future demand from overseas investors. During the crisis, Taylor closed its operations in Gibraltar.

In the British market, Taylor Wimpey sold 13,341 homes in 2015, which represented an increase of 7%. According to Anthony Codling, analyst at Jefferies, “Taylor has had a clear strategy since the outbreak of the financial crisis – it focuses on margin rather than volume and invests in strategic locations (only)”.

The company’s share price rose by 0.62% yesterday, taking its cumulative increase over the last year to 61%. Its market capitalisation amounts to GBP 6,300 million in total.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Casado)

Translation: Carmel Drake